The Quiet American (1958)
Release Date: Feb 8, 1958 Wide
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Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 1,039
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Movie Info
The Quiet American was the first major American-financed film to touch upon the powder-keg situation in Vietnam (still referred to as Indochina in 1958). Audie Murphy plays an enigmatic American who comes to Saigon, ostensibly on an economic mission. He meets an embittered journalist (Michael Redgrave) who is living with an Indochinese girl (Giorgia Moll). The American falls for the girl and promises to marry her. In retaliation, the reporter tells the communists that the American GI's economist
Feb 8, 1958 Wide
Apr 19, 2005
Cast
-
Audie Murphy
The American -
Michael Redgrave
Thomas Fowler -
Claude Dauphin
Inspector Vigot -
Giorgia Moll
Phuong -
Kerima
Phuong's Sister -
Bruce Cabot
Bill Granger -
Fred Sadoff
Dominguez -
Richard Loo
Mr. Heng -
Peter Trent
Eliot Wilkins -
Clinton Anderson
Joe Morton -
Sonia Moser
Yvette -
Georges Brehat
French Colonel -
Vo Doan Chau
Cao-Dai Commandant -
Phoung Thi Nghiep
Isabelle -
Yoko Tani
Hostess -
Le Van Le
Cao-Dai Pope's Deputy -
Long Nguyen
Boy with Mask
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All Critics (9) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (2) | Rotten (2) | DVD (1)
Mankiewicz (who also wrote the adapted screenplay) does a fine job balancing romance, intrigue and war.
One of Mankiewicz's weaker films, a verbose, disappointingly sanitized version of Graham Greene's cynical novel about American involvement in Indo-China, with mediocre turns by Murphy and Redgrave.
The Quiet American is loosely adapted from Graham Greene's penetrating 1956 book about the Indo-China War.
Audience Reviews for The Quiet American
Super Reviewer
Once again, Joseph L. Mankiewicz knows how to tell a good story. The characters are all finely drawn, and though the typical Mankiewicz strategies of flashbacks and voice-overs get tired and over-used, the typical Mankiewicz theme of attempting to maintain one's integrity never gets old. In this iteration of Mankiewicz's oeuvre, a British reporter cares about nothing but his own interests and his own happiness, but the rhetoric of selflessness challenges his worldview. The dramatic question of whether or not he would rise to higher concerns than his own interests is quite compelling.
The remake with Michael Caine is better than the original because it's truer to Graham Greene's novel, but this is certainly a noble effort.
Overall, this is a compelling story and a strong film with great performances.
Super Reviewer
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